Improve your email marketing overnight

Written by Alex Faiers of Addictivity on 08 July 2013

The thing about Internet marketing is that as new tactics, techniques, and tools come out, the old ones can seem to get swept away and labelled as ‘ineffective’. In some respects, this has happened to email marketing. But as DJ Waldo shows us, 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email.

Okay, How Can I Improve my Email Marketing Efforts?

Glad you asked. First, let’s look at the autoresponder. Get a good one. Good autoresponder software can help automate all of the tedious work that can go into staying in close communications with multiple subscribers.

Let’s say you have 350,000 subscribers (or even 1000). Staying in direct communication and doing so in an automated way will save you headaches, time, and cold hard cash. Obviously, the first hurdle is to gain the subscribers, but by using using autoresponder software, you can be sure that your brand and your messages stay fresh in their minds, giving the practical illusion of consistency.

Be Clear, Consistent, and Honest

It’s way too easy to become overbearing with your email marketing. In other words, hammering your subscribers with constant emails and a multitude of marketing messages will surely make your ‘unsubscribe’ metric jump through the roof. When attracting new subscribers, be clear in the number of emails they can expect. Try not to deliver more than 2-3 per month (and make those emails worth the wait -- don’t send them just for the sake of sending them). Choose the time and day you’ll be sending ahead of time and condition your readers for when to expect your emails. Be honest in the sense that after you preset your subscribers with expectations that you don’t end up spamming them and/or annoying them to the point of opting out.

Learn the Art of Subtlety and Strong Copy

The best and most long-lasting marketing messages aren’t delivered by brute force. So while there’s no specific right way or wrong way (for argument’s sake) for crafting your copywriting, do learn how not to be boring and repetitive. No one will read a boring subject headline and no one will act on content that isn’t compelling.

With the ultimate goals being the ‘open rate’ and ‘click though rate’, be sure to provide value and a concrete, useful reason for engaging with your content.

Get to know and study the free, useful tips on Copyblogger. In 15 minutes with this site, you can walk away with more content tips than attending any seminar.

Learning how to make your messages subtle, yet effective will create a sense about your brand that is less about the ‘hard sell’ and more of a community/niche leader who happens to have great products or services.